Welcome to Howl Leaders Lead, where every week you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I break down the key learning so that by the end of the episode, you'll have something simple that you can apply as you develop into a better leader. That's what this podcast is all about. Well, it's Thanksgiving time. It's time to eat a lot. And since we're gathering together this week for quality time and quality food, it's the perfect chance for us to learn some leadership lessons from my favorite chef, Edward Lee. When people come to visit us here in Louisville and they ask where they should go eat, I always recommend Edward Lee's restaurant, Six Ten Magnolia. His food is incredible. And I got to say, his carrot cake is absolutely out of this world. On top of being a successful restaurateur, he's also competed on Top Chef, written two really fun and wonderful books, and has even been nominated for an Emmy. This guy has built a thriving career in an industry that can be pretty much cut throat. And he's done it by showing people how much they matter. When he prepares a dish, when he's talking to his staff, he treats every single person as an individual. People matter and when you could show your people that they matter to you, well , that's the hallmark of a great leader. Keep listening to see how it's done. So here's my conversation with my good friend and soon to be yours, Edward Lee. You know, Edward, I always like to go back to the beginning. You know, tell us about your upbringing. So my parents came over to America in 1971 from South Korea. You know, they did something interesting. Back then, all the Koreans were moving to a neighborhood in Queens called Fl ushing. It was sort of the Korean neighborhood. And they decided that they weren't going to do that. We were going to move to Kannarsi, Brooklyn, which was back then the pits. But they really wanted me to be American. Like it was their dream. They really wanted me to sort of see the world and be with different cultural groups and sort of embrace being in America. So we moved to a really strange neighborhood and it was all full of all kinds of immigrants, like Jewish people in Polish and Italians and Jamaicans and Indians. And it was a rough neighborhood, but it was also a really interesting upbringing. And you know, looking back on now, a lot of my sort of culinary roots came from this weird sort of immigrant enclave living in this working class immigrant neighborhood, where I was exposed to so many different people at a young age. When was your first restaurant job and what did you learn from it? So this is an interesting story. And I actually don't know if I've ever told this in public. My first restaurant job was at Trump Tower in New York City. I was 15 and I wanted nothing more than to work at a fancy restaurant. And back then in New York City, I mean, you know, there were restaurants and there was Trump Tower. And so I go to this place. There was a little restaurant called Terrace Five and it was on the fifth floor . So I go to this place and I apply for a job. And the manager loved me, but then he looked at my application and he said, "Oh , you're only 15. I can't hire you." And I said, "Okay." So I go home and that Friday, I get to call it like 4 p.m. and it's the manager . And you know, back then we'd have cell phones. So it was like in my house or my apartment. And he said, "Listen, the busboy that we hired didn't show up. If you can be here in a half an hour, I will, you know, scratch out your age and you got the job." So I ran over there literally and I got the job. And that was my first job was being a busboy at a little restaurant in Trump Tower. And I did it for about four months. Did you learn then that you liked the restaurant business? You obviously weren't doing the food at that point. We were a 15 year old kid to be working in a restaurant. And it was a fancy restaurant and there were high inclines and the waiters were all buttoned up and I absolutely loved every minute of it. I was just surrounded by people much older than me, much cooler than me. And on the second day of my job, Michelle Feiper came in for lunch. She ordered a cappuccino and the manager ordered me to go make a cappuccino, which I had never done before. So I think I actually burned my thumb spilling the hot milk and made a cappucc ino. I delivered it to the table and she looked up at me and smiled and said, "Thank you." And I remember turning around and going, "This is the coolest job in the world ." I can see why. That's a good story. Do you have another story from your childhood that shaped you as a person and eventually as a chef? So we were very humble. I came from humble upbringings and both my parents worked. They both worked full time jobs, mostly in the garment business. And so I didn't see my parents very much. I mean, they pretty much left before Dawn and they came home about 10 p.m. every night. So I spent a lot of time with my grandmother. She was a widow and she basically spent most of her days cooking and it's just doing domestic work. And I was always fascinated by the things she did in the kitchen. I didn't know, but she would make tea from scratch. She would make miso from scratch. She would make all these sauces. She would ferment kimchi and marinade crabs and do all these things with a very small budget going to the local ethnic market and just make all these things. And I remember being fascinated. And I remember trying to spend time with her in the kitchen. When you come from a traditional Korean household, cooking is considered women 's work and I was the only son. So I was supposed to do other things. And I remember her. She would always kick me out of the kitchen and tell me to go outside and play sports or do whatever. And she was like, you don't belong in the kitchen. I remember it was the first time that I had to fight my way in the kitchen. And I told her I don't remember how old I was. And I told my grandmother, I said, I live here too. And you can't kick me out of the kitchen. And so she finally relented. And she would let me just hang out with her and do things and give me little jobs to do. But she would never explain it to me. She just would silently cook. And she would let me hang out and watch her. But she would never explain what she was doing. So I kind of had to figure out on my own what it was. And I wasn't cooking back then, but I truly, truly believe that was the beginning of my fascination with the kitchen. You obviously at that young age, you had a real strong courage of conviction and independence. How do you think that's really served you in your career? A follow up story to that is when I finally turned 18 and I told my parents, most notably my dad, that I was going to be a chef. Let's see, they were not happy about it. To the point where my father didn't talk to me for many years because he was just so upset in his words, he didn't bring me to this country to be a servant. And so to me, that conviction to be able to sort of fight my way in the kitchen , to be able to sort of convince my parents against very, very daunting expectations, to say, you know what, I truly, truly belong here and I want to be here and I'm going to make a success out of myself. It's always been in the bottom of my heart the thing that drives me the most because when hardships happen, when times get tough, when it's very stressful, I always kind of think back on those early days when I had to convince my own parents that I was going to do this. Nothing is harder than that. Nothing is harder than looking into the eyes of your parents, seeing disappointment and saying, "Don't worry, I'm going to prove you wrong." And so when I think when you have that in your gut, you can sort of accomplish anything. You know, what advice do you give people on how to really know what's in their heart, let alone follow? To me, it's about true passion. When I spend, even today, if I spend 12, 14 hours in a kitchen, it doesn't feel like work. It doesn't feel like hardship. In my younger days, anyway, when I was cooking all the time, I missed lots of friends, outings, I missed anniversaries, I missed birthday parties, I missed New Year's Eve celebrations, and I never felt like I was missing out on anything. And I think when you find something that truly moves you and truly makes the time pass without any kind of regrets, that's it. You're like Warren Buffett in the sense that he says he tap dances to work. It sounds like he tap dances to work all the time. I still wake up every morning and I can't wait to get to work. Now, did you go on to college or? I did. I knew very early on that I wanted to do this, but I went to college really to make my parents happy because that was the deal we made. They said, "You're first generation immigrant. You're going to graduate from an American college." So I went to NYU, which was interesting because I said, "Listen. I knew that I didn't need a college degree to do what I wanted to do because I wanted to cook." So I decided that if I'm going to be here anyway, I'm just going to actually major in what I like to do. And I love to read. So I just became a lit major, which they weren't happy with again. But I said, "You know, I'm doing this for you guys. I'm going to be a lit major. I'm going to read some great books." And as soon as I graduate college, I'm going to get a job in a restaurant. But interestingly enough, I actually really appreciate it. I had a great education. I really enjoyed my college days. And I think being a lit major for four years has served me well in many other ways. Now you now own some very acclaimed restaurants. When did you first tell older you when you first owned your first restaurant? So I was in New York City and I was not planning to open a restaurant. I graduated college. I was working at a few kitchens, some really nice kitchens in New York City. And I never went to culinary school. So I had this hair-brained idea, which was completely the opposite of what normal people do. I said, "What if I opened up a little joint, not a restaurant, but like a little sort of barbecue joint? And I would make money and then I would use that money to enroll in culinary school." Which is not what you do. You've got to come to school first and you open a restaurant. So I was walking through Chinatown in Manhattan and I just came upon this sign and it said "forerent call owner." And it wasn't a real estate sign. It was just like a little handwritten sign that said "forerent call owner." And I don't know why, but I just, you know, I called him and turned out the lease was great. It was an old Chinese restaurant that had gone out of business and the rent was so cheap. And I don't know why, but I said, "Sure, I'll do it." I had no money. And I took out credit card debt and I got a little bit of a SBA loan and I borrowed money from friends and neighbors and anyone I could ask. A good friend of mine was a carpenter and he helped me build it all. I was 25. I opened my first restaurant for less than $180,000 in downtown New York City, which is unheard of. I tell that story and people don't believe me. It became really, really successful and we got a review on the front page of the New York Times within six months. What was your concept? You said you wanted to have a joint, but what kind of thing did you say? It was kind of like a weird fusion Korean barbecue joint, but that served like good drinks, you know, a little bit of American food, a little bit of Korean food, all small bites. And I really did not know what I was doing at all. But I'm thankful I did that. I cut my teeth in the business doing that and I realized that maybe I didn't know everything about food, but I sure well learned how to do plumbing. I learned how to, you know, lead a team of 30 people. I learned how to fix light bulbs and fix bathrooms and paint walls and anything that I had no money. So anything that needed to be done, I just did it. You learn the business from the ground. I learned everything from going to the flower market on Sundays at 4 p.m. because that was when they were throwing away all their flowers and you can get them for next to nothing to go into Chinatown and haggling on the fish, things that they don't teach in cooking school. And so, you know, five years into that, when I actually did make the money, I realized I didn't need to go to cooking school because I sort of put my own self through cooking school with this little restaurant. So I looked back at those days pretty fondly. So now you're in the restaurant business for real and, you know, what do you find the most challenging aspect of leading your restaurant business? You're only as good as the people that you hire and there's no way that I can excel and there's no way that I can progress and expand without having all the people on my team believe in what we do. And it's hard. My head chefs, my managers, they all believe in it. You know, sometimes the young student that's a waitress just wants a job. You know, this is not her career. She just wants to come in and make some money and fund whatever else she's doing in life. And that's fine too. We rely on those people. But they don't always believe in the dream the way I do. They don't always understand the struggles that I've gone through and the passion that I have. And to be able to convince every single person from the head chef down to the dishwasher that we have a dream, we have a purpose. We're here for a reason. And if we all work together, things go well. If we don't, things fall apart. How do you cast that vision Edward? I try and lead by example. I go in there. I'm every single day. I go to work. I try to show people that I'm never above doing their jobs. And I try and explain to people like I've done every job in the restaurant business. I've washed dishes. I have done plumbing. I have painted walls. And I go in there. And if I see a problem, I go in there and I tackle it. I am not above washing dishes even today. If a customer now is at my restaurant last night and a customer need water, the waitresses were busy. I went and I grabbed the pitcher of water and I fill their water. And I hope that when they see that, they realize that this thing for me is not just a business. It's not just to make money. I truly believe in taking care of people, taking care of my customers. I want every single person to feel like they're coming into my home and they are. And I think when people see that about me, when they truly believe that I care, I care about my restaurant family is a true family for me. I have my other family, but they are also a true family. And it gets more and more difficult as we expand and as with each restaurant we add on, then we add another 70-80 people to a staff. What are the soft skills you have to develop to be a really good leader in your mind? I think it's being able to, and as impossible as it is, is to look at every single person individually. You know, we have policies. We have lists of things that we have to do, but it's to look at every single person as a human being and as an individual and not just a worker. And I think once people feel like they're just a number or just a worker or just a product, they lose the passion. I try and get into people's lives. I try and sort of learn something about them personally. I try and ask them something about their kid, about what they did on Sunday, on their day off. And I try and really help them in a way. And I try and sort of understand that we spend a lot of time together in the restaurants. These people work six days a week and they give a lot to my group. And so while we are here in the restaurant, I try and make life easy for them and fun. You know, Edward, I've studied a lot of great companies, a lot of great leaders , but every successful business creates a culture or work environment where everybody on the team knows that they count. That sounds like what you really believe in. Yeah. Yeah. And you mentioned, so I'm sure the stereotypical expectation is for you to specialize in Asian food. What direction have you taken? And why? I know you started out with sort of a Korean fusing type business. What's your view on that now? So I moved to Louisville, Kentucky. I came from New York City. It was kind of a sad story. The restaurant that I had in New York was doing well and after 9/11, things went haywire. And I just needed a change. I needed to get out, a friend of mine recommended that I come to Kentucky for Derby. I came here and I just fell in love with this place. And obviously the bourbon and the pretty ladies and hats didn't hurt. So I just felt like there was something here that I'd never seen before. I was 29 when I arrived here. For being a chef for so long, I'd never really spent time on farms. You know, I never really understood agriculture. You know, I was a chef and I'd pick up my phone and order my meats. And when I came down here, I was so sort of enthralled by the people, the culture. And little by little, I started getting into Southern food, which is not something that I was born with. I didn't grow up with it. And everything from fried chicken to collard greens to chest pies and all this stuff. And I just couldn't stop eating this stuff. And I was like, this is amazing. Where is this been all my life? I think as an inquisitive chef, little by little, if you start eating things that you love, it's natural to start to want to cook them. And so I would start going back to my kitchen and going, well, I'm going to make barbeque sauce. I'm going to make biscuits and gravy. You know, obviously I was never going to be a traditional Southern chef. But little by little, I started saying, well, this stuff is really good. And maybe I can mix a little like Korean spice with it. And maybe I can mix this. And you know, I'm a Korean born chef, but trained in a very sort of classical French way because a lot of the restaurants I worked in as a kid were French restaurants. And then I started taking these Southern traditions and started kind of inf using them with it. And I feel like that was the final missing piece of the puzzle that completed me as a chef. And I've been doing it ever since. You know, ever now I have my autograph copy of Buttermilk graffiti, which is very good. Thank you. Right. This book, you know, as a creative person, as someone who looks at the world sort of with a creative lens, I'm always looking for different outlets to tell stories. And I truly believe that a good restaurant tells a really good story, you know, with food. And I truly believe like that's what I try and do every day at my restaurants. It's not only serve delicious food, but also like tell a story and make people see things in a new way. And so whether it's TV or restaurants or books, I try and do that. So we had great success with my first cookbook, Smoke and Pickles. So when it came down to do another one, everyone thought that I was just going to do another cookbook. And I talked to my publisher and I said, you know, I have an idea to sort of travel across America, look at all these different cultures and write about them in a creative way. And, you know, hopefully a slightly interesting, maybe poetic, maybe, you know, sort of personal way. It really was a personal journey for me. And they were like, well, let's see a sample and let's see what you can do. You know, again, I think if you truly have a passion for something, you're going to give it you're all. And I really did. This was a two year process. And I went to places that I never thought I would go. And I met people that I never thought I would meet. And I just wrote about them in a way that was very honest and hopefully informative, but fun, you know. Well, the book is certainly fun and I learned a lot and you did go to all kinds of different places. And you really believe in the power of storytelling. Why is that? What do you think is so powerful in a story? I think that what makes humans different from animals, let's say, is that we dream. You know, even I have a young daughter and that's all we do is we tell stories like we look at the moon and we want to go there. You know, we see an ocean and we want to cross it. Like we need stories, we need narratives, we need adventures. That's what makes us human. And you know, I can get lost in a book and you know, 10 hours goes by and I've just traveled to exotic places all because of a book and words that I'm reading. And I think that that gets the juices flowing in our head. And that's what makes us feel alive. What story do you love to tell the most or do you enjoy most in the book that you wrote? You know, I really, it was actually the first chapter that I wrote. It's not the first chapter in the book, but it was the first chapter that I wrote. And it's about this little mill town called Lowell, Massachusetts. And there's a very vibrant Cambodian community that lives there. And I went to Lowell thinking that I was going to write about the Cambodian chefs there. And I did and I was spent a few days eating this great Cambodian food and going to markets and talking to people. And this was originally not supposed to be in the book, but I was driving around Lowell and I came upon this incredibly old boxing gym called Romalo's West End Gym. And I'm a huge sports man. So I go in there and I go, oh, this is where they filmed that movie. It was this old movie called The Fighter. And it's a great movie. I think it won an Oscar. And I go, oh yeah, this is where they filmed the movie. And I was talking to the guys and he just started chatting. And one of them said, hey, man, if you really want a story, you got to go see the show. You got to go see this guy, Irish Jack Brady. He owns a bar down the road, an Irish bar. So I went there and ended up meeting him at night and just thought I was going to have a five minute conversation and just wanted to ask him about Lowell. We ended up staying up until two in the morning. He told me story after story after story about Irish history and Lowell about boxing, about what it took to grow up here and fight your way through the rough times. And I realized that at that moment at two in the morning after drinking Irish whiskey with this gentleman, that that was going to be the book. That was the story that I wanted to tell. It wasn't just the Cambodian chef, but it was the Cambodian chef next to this Irish boxer and how those two lives are really linked together. And they may not even realize it, but that's their story. And it's kind of the story of America where you go around and there's sort of one group that's sort of fading away or becoming more middle class or becoming more American or gentrified. And there's another group coming in, the next generation of immigrants fighting that same battle, clung their way through life. And to me, that's America. And so I just wanted to go and tell that story. So you're a real student of the intersection of food and culture. To me, food is not just what's on the plate. I look at food and I taste food, but then I really try and see the person behind it, the culture that made it, the reasons why certain spices go together and the certain sauces make it onto our plate. I wrote my latest book, "Tay Charge If You," how self-coaching can transform your life and career because I really believe that your life is just too important to delegate to someone else. That's why I'm so passionate about self-coaching. If you're new to this concept, I put together a free self-coaching guide that will walk you through the key principles of how to become a great self-coach to really find fulfillment in your life and career. You can get it at takechargeifu.com/guide. You know, you write in your book and I thought this was great that if you really want to know someone, you have to eat what he or she has eaten. Explain that. So there's a lot of things that we culturally can change in ourselves, right? You know, like I can put on a suit and tie and, you know, I can say, "I'm not Korean. I'm going to do this or I'm going to ride horses or I'm going to play basketball." But there's something in our culinary DNA that always calls back to who we are because usually the foods that we love the most reveal something about our childhood and how we grew up because you start getting nostalgic about the things that you ate when you were a kid. And so you crave those things and you want to sort of eat them again and again. So when you really look at someone and see what they're, you know, it's a little experiment. I go and talk to people and I say, "What's your favorite food?" "Oh, mac and cheese. Why?" You know, my grandma used to make that for me when I was a kid. Like, there you go, right? There's a nostalgia to food that is so strong in us. And it really reveals a lot about who we are, how we grew up, where we grew up. It's fascinating to me. When I read that, I thought about that and I thought of my dad's pancakes. And my dad's pancakes, you know, I mean, he makes the flattest, thinnest pancakes and he gets them just really just tough almost and they're just sensational. But it's really the love and the, you know, his love and our family love that I think that that really brings out. So I think that's very powerful. Edward, have you ever had an incident or an experience that made you appreciate what it might be like to be without food, just to be hungry? Yeah. My wife went through a bout of cancer and, you know, we had a young child and she was recovering from surgery. And you know, my wife has a great appetite like I do and we love food and we love dining out and we love just cooking together. And you know, for about four weeks, she couldn't eat anything. You know, she literally couldn't hold down food. And so I was making these purees for her and I was trying to do everything from like smelling like mint, like making fragrance or concoctions for her to smell. And I truly looked at that and I saw the experience that she was going through and it was sort of an outer body experience and I kind of put myself in her shoes and that thing that she loved so much and that I loved so much that she had lost it, you know, and it was the medication and the recovery. And it was something that, you know, obviously she's just great now and made a full recovery, but you know, beyond everything else, it was something when I was just, you know, I was there with her every day and we sat there and nursed her and that not being able to eat was something that was really, it hit me hard. Yeah. Well, Diane's an amazing person and a real fighter and competitor for sure. I know you competed quite successfully on Top Chef. Did that really bring out your competitive instincts? Yes and no. I think as chefs, any great chef is going to be a great competitor because it's such a tough business that you're not going to succeed if you're not, you know, cut throat and competitive and you really have to want it. So in that case, I think every person on that program or every chef is competitive to the bone you have to be. Having said that, that show puts you in a situation that you're just not used to. It's very, very stressful. It's tense. It's awkward and you know, it's created for a reason, right? I don't go into my kitchen and tell my staff, "Hey guys, we have one hour to make a menu. Let's go." So they create these artificial situations that sort of bring out the best and sometimes the worst in people. In that sense, yeah, you're thrown into a situation that's completely unknown and you have no idea what to expect and then you just have to sort of survive on instincts, mostly. It was an interesting experiment. It is not something that I do on a daily basis. So the competitive nature, I've had it before and I continue to have it today. You mentioned something that was interesting. You said that every chef, you have to be cutthroat. Cutthroat is not something that I would link up to you. Is that really the right word you mean or is it, if so, why? You know, most people who know me, like when they meet me the first time, they always have the same reaction. You're a nice guy and you really laid back and I'm like, "Yeah, you know, I am ." And they get a job and the first night that they see me in the kitchen, they are taking a back because there is a switch in me. The apron goes on and the clock hits six o'clock and the doors are open. I'm a very different person and it's something that not everyone gets to see. I am not afraid to say that I want to be the best. I want my restaurant to be the best and I want people to come to my restaurant over your restaurant and I'll do just about anything to make that happen. And if that's cutthroat, that's cutthroat. But you know, I mean, obviously, you know, it's friendly competition but also it's like, it's serious business. Like, we want to be the best. There's nothing else. And so in that sense, yeah, it's very cutthroat. And it's so competitive. There's so many restaurants as a customer, you can go anywhere and to sort of convince someone to come to your restaurant over to that next one, you can't just sort of wait and hope that they come. You have to do things to make sure that they do. Well, you were obviously very good at television and you actually earned an Emmy nomination as the host chef of the third season of The Mind of the Chef. What's in the mind of the chef? A lot. It's a lot. That was a really fun documentary to do because it really pushed me to tell stories. And I think it actually helped me to write this book because I had to explain myself on camera. I think as chefs, that's just something that we're not asked to do all the time . And so they would film a dish and they would say, "Okay, now, tell me why you did that." And I would give them a reason. They said, "Well, no, that's not enough. Tell me more. Tell me about your parents. Tell me about your experiences. You know, what made you make this dish? What made you put the sauce on this dish?" And it was a really good exercise in understanding. It was almost like going to therapy. It was like, "I had to really dig deep and figure out the reasons why I do what I do," to explain it to an audience. It was a truly amazing experience. Edward, you've obviously built a name for yourself. I mean, you're a famous chef. There's no question about that. Have you consciously gone about marketing Edward Lee or has that just come through time and grade? I didn't at first. Obviously when you're a chef, you're just sort of in the kitchen and kind of trying to survive every day. After we did some TV and after the first book did well, we started to look at what it means. One of the first things that I saw was a friend of mine has a soy sauce company here in town. Now it's an amazing company. In the early days, we were just starting out. I was kind of just on TV and done a book and he was starting out. I just remember putting it on Facebook. I would serve it in my restaurants and talk to people. He called me and say, "Man, our sales just went up." It was because I had put something on Facebook. I think that was the first moment when I realized that the message had power and that people were listening to me. We started to really consciously look at that. My wife Diane, who's worked at Yum for many, many years, really understood how branding works and marketing works and understood how messaging works. She was really integral in helping me and saying, "Even little things, you can 't go out looking like that because you're a public figure now. Comb your hair to building my website and figuring out what that message is and making it digestible, if you will, to the public." That's a huge thing that we're still working on, but she's really integral in that. You're very aware of your brand and building it. Now I am. You have a love for immigrants. I know people come to the United States for opportunity, but what do you lose when you become an American? You lose something and you gain something. We lose our anchor to whatever our homeland is. We lose traditions. We lose language. We lose rituals. Sometimes we lose religion. I think what we gain is this communal harmony, this amazing experience that we call being an American. I always say, just from a food standpoint, my wife and I travel, we go to Italy . We go to Korea. We go to Mexico. Everywhere I go, I love it. It's fun, but by the third or fourth day in Italy, I go, "Man, can I get anything but pasta? Can I get some Chinese food or a fried chicken?" I'm like, "No, we don't have that. We eat pasta every day." Or if you're in Korea, you eat noodles and rice every day. One of the things that as Americans, we don't appreciate enough is that I can have soul food in the morning and Chinese food for lunch and Indian food for dinner. We have such diversity and we have such choice here. That's not so in most of the world. That bleeds into all aspects of culture too, but just from a food standpoint, we are spoiled here. We can get the best of anything we want anywhere. That's something that's truly different and special. I love that. You talk about diversity. Talk a little bit about the program you've launched to train young women on culinary skills and all aspects of the restaurant industry. I feel truly blessed and truly lucky to have my life and to have the successes that I have. There comes a time where you want to give back. We started a nonprofit. Not knowing what we were going to do with it, but our mission statement was that we were going to basically look at a combat inequality in the restaurant community and wherever we could, we were trying to do something about it. But do small and impactful programs. Instead of just giving money to a charity, we wanted to really change the lives of a small number of people but change them significantly. When the Me Too movement came about, my director of the Foundation as a woman, her name is Lindsey, and she's been in the industry for a very long time and she's brilliant and she knows everything about it and she said, "We should do something about this." I said, "Sure. What do we do?" We sat there and we tossed hundreds of ideas out and what came to us finally, we interviewed tons of female chefs around the country, really successful ones. We asked them, "What does it take to be an incredible, successful female chef?" The answer that we came up with was that it requires mentorship, it requires confidence, education, it requires just basically giving a young chef the confidence to tell her that she can do it. We look at this, for what it is, it's a male-dominated world in the kitchens of most restaurants. We said, "Why? Can we change that? Can we help a young female chef go from being just a line cook or a salad prep person to a head chef? How do we nurture someone through that process so that we have more equality and we have more women in this industry?" I think every industry benefits from having diversity and men and women and physicians of leadership. It took us a long time and we did countless hours of figuring out exactly what this program is going to be. We came upon, we're going to pick five young female chefs in this state of Kentucky through an application process and then they get hooked up with five very successful female chefs around the country and we send them off mentorship training and then at the end of it, we're all going to go to New York to the Beard House and do a dinner together. That's fantastic. That is great. Edward, you're an entrepreneur, a chef, writer, now a teacher. I'll have to add that to your television host. How do you juggle so many balls and balance it? What I also know is very important to you is your family. That's the hardest part. The way I juggle it all is, A, I don't sleep much and I'm pretty much obsessed by everything that I do. I have great team players who sort of help me to juggle everything, who keep every aspect of it going every day. The other part of that is my family. My family keeps me grounded and they make sure that even little things like, so my head doesn't get too big and my ego doesn't get too big, but also it's about the simple things. Why am I doing all this? It's not for fame and fortune. It's because I get to come home to my wife and my lovely daughter and I get to spend time on them and not worry and not have to work countless hours like my parents did so that I could spend time with my family and we go out and do things. We go to the zoo and we go to the park and we go ride horses. To me that's true happiness and so all of this is really to make sure that the core of my life, which is my family, is taken care of. That balancing act, though it's challenging from a time standpoint, from an emotional standpoint, is very easy. I do all this so that my family is that we're happy and they balance it all out . What three bits of advice would you give aspiring leaders? I would say every day I want to learn something new and every day I want to teach something to someone and it doesn't actually happen every single day, but I truly believe that's how you keep growing and people also want to be around you. If you're only hoarding information and not giving it out, then there's no incentive for people to stick with you. I'm very transparent and selfless when it comes to the things that I learn and I truly believe that sharing is what if I go somewhere exotic when I come back to Kentucky, I'm always like trying to buy something, a new sauce or some candy bar and I come back and I try and give it to my staff and say, "Man, I went to the cool place." But I truly do, if I eat something amazing, I'm always like, "Man, how do I transport this dish back to my kitchen and have everyone taste it? It's impossible." But I truly believe that, whether it's taking pictures or writing notes and telling people about it, and I try and share as much as possible so that the people around me also feel it and they have success as well. We'll be back with the rest of my conversation with Chef Edward Lee in just a moment. You know, Edward's right on the money when he says you're only as good as the people around you. And nobody knows that better than Steve Kerr, the coach of the Golden State Warriors. In our episode of How Leaders Lead, Steve shares exactly how we can unlock the power of teams. You know, I inherited this Warriors team that was already really good. They had Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, and some amazing vets. I can see we had the talent, but I wanted to connect with the bench because I had been there. And so my first year I came up with this idea that our team mantra could be strength in numbers. And it was something that I talked about from day one. We had so much talent. We had so much depth that we were going to overwhelm teams. And it really became part of our persona. So go back and listen to my entire conversation with Steve that I had just before he launched into that 2022 championship season, Episode 62 here on How Leaders Lead. And the work you do requires so much creativity. How do you stay inspired and continue to innovate with your team? Well, a lot of it is being inclusive of my team. And I think as I get older, it's important for me to surround myself with younger generation, people who have fresh ideas and making sure that they know that all of their ideas come to the table and we take them all seriously. So a lot of my inspiration really comes from the people that I surround myself with. They come from all walks of life, backgrounds, both economic, social, ethnic, whatever, which you know, one of the reasons why I feel like diversity is so important because they just bring such different opinions and ideas to the table. And they bring the ideas that I necessarily wouldn't have thought about. So really it's a lot of collaboration for me. I agree with all that. One of the things that kind of bugs me is when you start saying, "As I get older, I mean, you want to talk about old, you're looking a guy a lot older than you." Let me ask you, what does winning look like for an elite chef like yourself? What's a metric of success that motivates you to keep pushing? You know, the restaurant world, the chef world is so fickle. It's so transitory that you could be on top of the world one year and the next year. You know, you could have an economic recession and your restaurants aren't doing well and you're considered a has been and lots can happen. And so for me, I'm very fortunate in the fact that I really do wake up every morning and I love what I do and I don't want to do anything else in this world. So I just want to stay relevant. I'm really fortunate too that I get to run restaurants. I'm in the middle of writing another cookbook right now. I get to do TV. I'm launching a video podcast on YouTube. So I have all these different interests that keep me busy and just keep the wheels running in my head. I never have a boring day, but I also never have a predictable day. Like every morning I wake up and I have a certain set of things to do on my to- do list, but I have so many different things going on and hitting me from all different angles that my day can easily derail and I'm ending up, you know, doing flower arrangements at my restaurant, which can annoy some people, I guess, because it's not what I was supposed to do today, but I love it because I kind of thrive off the unpredictability, that sort of running go nature of the restaurant business. It always brings me joy. It always brings me some sort of a new spin on something. And I'm always learning. I never know everything about the restaurant business. So to me, to be in a position where I don't necessarily have to be at the same job every day, I can sort of pick and choose where my day goes. But at the same time, I'm always playing defense a little bit because I know something's going to come up and I get to, I use those opportunities to learn to learn about every aspect of this business. You know, I know that for all of us, we have our ups and downs, our wins and losses in both life and business. Did you share a story about a time when things didn't go as planned and what you learned from it? That's pretty much every day of my life doesn't go as planned. But recently, we lost a couple of restaurants during COVID and we had to shut our both businesses and really it wasn't because the businesses were doing bad. There were other outside forces in COVID and buildings shutting down. They're very sad moments, sad for me, sad for my staff, sad for all the work that we put into it and we didn't really get to have a final goodbye or a send off. And so those are things that I look at as challenges. But also to me, it allowed me to free up my time to pivot and do other things and all of a sudden I found myself instead of running six restaurants, only running three restaurants. And I had extra time on my hands and sort of refocused it into my nonprofit and refocused a lot of that energy. And I found this incredible new passion that I didn't have before, that I maybe existed in me, but I didn't recognize it or didn't know about it, which was helping people, finding ways and solutions to help people that are hurting in the restaurant business. And I can honestly say the nonprofit work that I committed to doing during CO VID is now something that I will commit to for the rest of my career. But it took sort of losing three restaurants in order for me to have the time to commit myself to this other thing that now is something I wake up every day and I think about and I try to do better at it. So, you know, it's a lot of times it's just finding the opportunities that are all around you. And you know, when things don't go your way, just channel your energy into something else. I love how you pivot and you've done such a great job, you know, helping restaurants that are not as fortunate as you and also, you know, bringing women into the workforce as chefs. And I really congratulate you on all those efforts. What's been one of your best days as a chef? Tell us a story you'll never forget. I had something recently that happened. We did a charity dinner at my restaurant and we invited two groups of people that were having some friction with each other. We invited some members of the LMPD, Louisville Metro Police Department, and we invited some members of the black community. And we had this dinner and the whole point of the dinner was to create unity and for people to get along with each other and to see each other as people, not as combatants, not as political, you know, motivations, but just as people. I cooked a barbecue dinner for them and we didn't know what was going to come of it. And it was really important that I brought my daughter and my wife with me. And I wanted to show both the audience and my family that what I do for a living food oftentimes is fun, entertaining, it's luxurious, it's a really beautiful escape . But sometimes food and restaurants and chefs can have a bigger meaning and a bigger impact and can affect society in ways that we don't often think of chefs doing. By the end of the dinner, everyone was hugging each other, everyone was passing up business cards, we all took pictures and we all vowed to continue this mission of unity, of getting together, of communication, of trying to understand each other despite our political beliefs. And to me, that was such an important thing. You know, my daughter was sitting right there and seeing it. She's nine years old. And I know that we get so much of our information on social media these days that it was so important to have her sitting in the room and listening to these people say these really encouraging and wonderful things about each other and promising to do better on both sides of the aisle. And so that's one example of where I sort of get out of the chef mode. And even though I'm still cooking, it makes me feel really encouraged that the things that I do, they're small, they're small, dying as 20 people. But these things kind of impacts and they can have ripples that go beyond just that room that we were in. Well, you can bring a city together and get closer together. And I think that's great. I've always learned that, you know, break it. There's nothing like breaking bread with people to get you on the same page and it does bring you together. And I totally agree with that. Edward, this has been so much fun and I'd like to have a little bit more with you with my lightning round of questions. Are you ready for this? I'll try my best. All right. The three words others would use to describe you. Motivated, grumpy and precise. Okay. If you could be someone besides yourself for a day, who would it be and why? I would be an NBA point guard, something like James Harden, if I could be anyone for a day. I would love to just, you know, bring a ball down a court and listen to 20,000 fans like cheering me on. What's your biggest pet peeve? People cutting lines, you know, for some reason, you know, like at the airport when someone tries to cut a line, like that just, it just gets under my skin. You only get to eat one genre of food for the rest of your life. What would it be? That's easy. Noodles, spicy noodles. So this might be easy too. What's your favorite meal at your favorite restaurant? Oh boy. No, that's a difficult one. I don't really have a favorite meal because I really just love everything. But if I were pushed for an answer, there's a Peking duck, which is like one of my favorite things and this place in Chinatown called New York Peking duck house. It's fantastic. What's a food you really enjoy that doesn't get the credit it deserves? German food. I love like my wife and I, whenever we travel and we find like some old mom and pop German restaurant, we like to go and try it. And you know, there's nothing better than a fried schnitzel with some sauerkra ut. I can't stand sauerkraut looking for you. If you turned on the radio in your car, what would we hear? Probably sports radio. That's kind of my setting on the car. What was your most recent, I can't believe this is happening to me moment. Last year recently, I was given a Muhammad Ali award in Louisville and I just found myself on stage with some incredible people around the country that were doing incredible things. And that was really humbling because I didn't really feel like I belonged in such a steamed company. Well, you do. Last lightning round question. What's something about you few people would know? I'm very passionate about singing karaoke. I used to recently broke, but I used to have a karaoke machine in my own home. Favorite karaoke song? I got to ask you. I can do a mean Tom Petty. I do a little bit of YouTube. I can do some Elvis if the mood is right. But sometimes when my wife and daughter are out of the house, I like to turn the lights down low and just rock out to some good karaoke by myself. You know, if you could go back 20 years and give yourself a motivational speech or some kind of encouragement, what would your message be? I think that's an easy one. I would tell my younger self and I tell this to all my young chefs that work under me. It's a marathon, not a race. And when you're young, you're so eager and you're so impatient and you're so just ready to explode and you want it all right now. And you realize that this career, this life is so long and you have so many paths that you can choose and there are so many paths that open up to you as you go along and you have to keep your mind open to it. You know, I mean, just as simple as I come from Brooklyn, New York and train most of my career in my early career in Manhattan. If someone told 22 year old Ed Lee, "Hey, you'll be running a restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky and spending the better part of 20 years being an ambassador for Kentucky, I would have said you're crazy." But lo and behold, that's exactly what happened. And I'm so fortunate that that opportunity came and I was open to the opportunity and I took it. I think patience is something in this world that we live in. It's not the most rewarded attribute, but I really do think patience is something that we need to focus more on and understand like whatever career you have, it's going to be a long one. If you want to be in it for a long time, patience is such a virtue. You know, one of the things about the restaurant industry is that people like yourself can start from nothing and end up at the top and you've certainly done that. And Edward, I want to thank you for sharing your dreams and your American dream with us because you're a guy who has really made it happen and I admire everything you 've done. Oh, thank you. Well, you can see for yourself, Edward is such a passionate and driven guy. He's also incredibly kind and attuned to people. It's a wonderful combination and I know it's a huge reason why he's been so incredibly successful. He reminds us of just how important it is, no matter how driven we are, to make sure we always honor the people around us as people, as individuals. This week, think of someone on your team who doesn't always get the credit they deserve. Write them a note and tell them exactly why they matter to you and what specific strengths they have that you admire. It's a simple gesture, but it's going to mean the world for that person to know that you appreciate them, not just as a worker, but as an individual. So do you want to know how leaders lead? What we learned today is that great leaders show others that they matter. And you know what? Great leaders are thankful for the people they have, the privilege of leading, and I want you to have a happy Thanksgiving. Coming up next on how leaders lead is David Gibbs, CEO of Yumbrands. Anything that is presented to you as being bad, I immediately try to figure out , okay, how can this actually be good? I just put my mindset in, okay, what good can come out of this and how do we capitalize on it because it's the only thing that we could control. So be sure to come back again next week to hear our entire conversation. Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of How leaders lead where every Thursday you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I'm making a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can apply to your business so that you will become the best leader you can be. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]